New ‘Super Smash Bros.’ is the fastest selling Wii U game ever

The newest incarnation of Super Smash Bros. is the fastest selling game on Nintendo’s Wii U console, the company reported Tuesday, with almost half a million copies sold in the first three days of release in the United States.

Nintendo said 490,000 physical and digital copies of its mash-up character fighting game were sold between Nov. 21 and Nov. 23.

Previously, Mario Kart 8 was the fastest selling Wii U game, and though Nintendo didn’t disclose how many copies it sold in the first three days, it did sell 2.28 million copies worldwide during its first two months of release.

Nintendo still comes in at a solid No. 3 in the console race. Its investor relations website lists 7.12 million Wii U units sold worldwide since the console’s launch two years ago; Sony’s PlayStation 4 passed 10 million in sales after just eight months on the market, and the Xbox One was nearing that number, Microsoft recently stated.

Though the previous-generation Wii console was a massive commercial success, selling more than a 100 million units, Nintendo hasn’t even matched the sales pace for its last unpopular console, the GameCube. But Super Smash Bros. Melee was the best selling game for the GameCube, so Nintendo is likely betting on the franchise fans to drive console sales.

Super Smash Bros. launched in North America first. It will be released in Europe on Nov. 28, Australia on Nov. 29 and Japan on Dec. 6. It seems Nintendo prioritized the U.S. release to get in before Black Friday sales this week.